Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1887-12-01
SEALS AND sEAlsklNe.

where the Most Valuable I'ur-SeaIs Are
Found and How They Are Caught
While great many people are in
terested in sealskins most of them
have rather vague idea as to the ami
mails from which they are stripped.
Every spring, when it is announced
that the Jan Maven hunters have
brought 20. 600. $4,000. $4,000 or 60. 600
to Dundee, or that those who rem
devious at St. Johns, or Harbor Grace
have landed 200. 900 or more. the prints
which especially concern themselves
with ladies' dress are filled with jubila-
ton over the approaching cheapness of
the fur, 10 possess which seems to con-
stitute the acme of female ambition.
In reality these captures off Newfound-
land or in the Arctic Sea have no effect
whatever on the fur market. They
are chair" seals, of no value except
for their hides, out of which leather is
made, or for their blubber. No fur
seals, in the sealskin-jacket sense of
the term, are found in the North At
lantic. They are almost entirely con-
fined to the North and South Pacific.
From the South Shetlands and the
Georgian Islands the seals, once so
abundant, have almost vanished; and
neither st. Paul's, nor the Crozets. nor
Marion Isle, the Elephant Isle, and
Amsterdam, nor even the Tristan da
Cunha yield any thing like the number
they once did. The early advent
urers who first fell among the crook
cries" in these localities seem to
have had a glorious time that their less
fortunate successors can not help en-
vying them, even at the distance OF
a century, though sealskins were not
so valuable in those far away days. In
1900, when the fur-seal business was
ut its height at the Georgian Islands,
112, 600 seals were taken, of which ST.
600 were secured by single ship
Between the years 1920 and 1921 over
800, 900 seals were taken at the South
Shetland Islands alone, though, in adj
dition to the number of old ones killed
for their fur, not fewer than 100. 900
newly-born young died in consequence
of the destruction of their mothers.
So indiscriminate was the slaughter
that whenever a seal reached the
beach, no matter what its age, it was
Immediately dubbed. The result of
this butchery was soon apparent. By
1922 the enormous herds in the South
Shetlands had been eXterminated, and
in 1880 sealing in the South Sea was
pronounced a losing business; the old
resorts of the animals having been
abandoned or cleared out" SO that
. 10 % 81
be content with profits much smaller
or much more precarious. At this day
fur seals of different species are picked
up all through the Antarctic and sub
Antarctic regions, as we'll as along the
coast of Japan and Siberia as far as
Kamschatka, the Kurirles and Behring
Strait. From California northward
three species are found. A few are seen
on the shores of California, Oregon,
and Washington Territory, and the
Indians of Vancouver Island and
British Columbia find moderate profit
in those which they kill. 1t is, how
ever, not until the Prybiloy or. Seal
Islands, off the shores of Alaska, are
reached that the fur seal attains its
maximum. These islets are leased by
the United States Government to a COM
mercial company. who are bound by
their contract, made in pursuance of
an Act of Congress, not to kill more
than $4,000 year on st Paul's Island,
or more than $4,000 on st. Georges
Island; though the Secretary of the
Treasury has power to alter the ratio
for each island if he pleases, or to ex-
tend the period for killing them from
June to the 18th of August, and then
after an interval during September
and October. The killing of female
seals and seals less than one year old,
and, among other regulations to the
same effect, the use of freag ms or
other means tending to drive the seals
away from the islands are expressly
forbidden. No dogs are perm; tied on
the islands, and no vessels other than
those employed by the company are
permitted to touch there or land any
persons or merchandise, except in case
of shipwreck or vessels in distress.
The method of capture is to drive the
seals into little heads or 'pods,"
where they are leisurely dispatched
by the blows of club on the head. /
London Standard.